European Elegies/Winter/Infinity
54.INFINITY
I love to linger on this lonely hill,
And lie behind this hedge whose gloomy yew
Blots out all distant vistas from the view;
For here the air is so profoundly still,
Time seems so merged into eternity,
That in the mystic silence all my brain
Is flooded with a mood where fear and pain
Are lost in a strange peace, serene and free.
And lie behind this hedge whose gloomy yew
Blots out all distant vistas from the view;
For here the air is so profoundly still,
Time seems so merged into eternity,
That in the mystic silence all my brain
Is flooded with a mood where fear and pain
Are lost in a strange peace, serene and free.
And as I hear from every branch the wail
Of vast wind-voices, waves of passion sweep
From out old ages, and my senses fail;
Until dead years and moments speak once more,
And my dazed heart, lost in a misty deep,
Swoons towards oblivion on its endless shore.
Of vast wind-voices, waves of passion sweep
From out old ages, and my senses fail;
Until dead years and moments speak once more,
And my dazed heart, lost in a misty deep,
Swoons towards oblivion on its endless shore.
From the Italian of Giacomo Leopardi.